OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:37 PM – Thursday, October 24, 2024
The oldest living person in the United States has passed away at the age of 115.
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Elizabeth Francis peacefully passed away on Tuesday night while surrounded by loved ones and family members. Ethel Harrison, her 69-year-old granddaughter, described her grandmother simply as “a person who loved people.”
“She loved the Lord. Her faith was extremely strong,” Harrison stated. “She was always, you know, jolly, you know, ‘how you doing? You’re doing okay?’ That was just her personality.”
“And she would always say, treat people like you want to be treated. And that was her motto,” Harrison continued.
“Whenever you went to her house, I don’t care what day of the week she was cooking,” Harrison added. “So, I just think that had a lot to do with it, too. Just how she took care of her body and things like that.”
Francis was the third oldest person in the world at the time of her death. She was born on July 15th, 1909, in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, although she spent most of her life in Houston, Texas.
Francis moved to Houston after her mother passed away when she was 11 years old, separating from her five siblings. Francis was sent to live in Texas with her aunt, where she lived ever since.
Francis also ran a coffee shop in Houston for nearly two decades, before retiring in 1975.
She was an active member of her church for years and only began requiring a wheelchair at the age of 107.
“She lives at home, and she’s the oldest person in the world to live at home. It’s really pretty extraordinary. Also, the community that she has through her church. So there [are] really active families and communities. It’s very difficult for people to reach that age in isolation,” previously stated Ben Meyers, the CEO of LongeviQuest, a database company tracking the oldest people in the world.
During an interview with a local Houston news station in 2023 for her 114th birthday, Francis expressed that she still felt young, despite her old age.
“I’m very, very young. Look at me, I’m like a little young chicken,” she stated.
Francis also previously revealed the secret to living a long life, citing her faith, speaking her mind, and not smoking or drinking. However, one exception that she did note was enjoying “the occasional glass of wine.”
The oldest living person in the United States is now Naomi Whitehead, who is currently 114 years old, and the oldest person in the world is 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka of Japan.
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